Leaked documents obtained by the Council of Canadians reveal that government officials and business representatives from Canada, Mexico and the United States are scheduled to discuss bulk water exports in a closed-door meeting at the end of the month as part of a larger discussion on North American integration.
Under the title “North American Future 2025 Project,” the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies is working with the Conference Board of Canada and the Mexican Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas to hold “closed-door roundtable sessions” in an effort to “analyze, comprehend and anticipate North American Integration.”
A roundtable on the “Future of the North American Environment,” is planned for Friday April 27, 2007 in Calgary, and will discuss “water consumption, water transfers and artificial diversions of bulk water” with the aim of achieving “joint optimum utilization of the available water.”
The documents are damning – not just for the secrecy they describe, but also because of what we now know is being discussed by government “practitioners” and corporate “stakeholders.”
The documents also reveal that “trilateral coordination of energy policy” and the development of “North American security architecture” are being discussed by high-level government officials from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
To read the Council of Canadians’ analysis of the leaked document, click here (PDF). And to read the original text, click here (PDF). Also, check out an article that ran in today’s Ottawa Citizen here.
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Stumble It!
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) proposes to conduct a research
project that will examine the future strategic issues facing North America projecting out to
the year 2025. The results of the study will enable policymakers to make sound, strategic,
long-range policy decisions about North America, with an emphasis on regional integration……………………………
In order to strengthen the capacity of Canadian, U.S., and Mexican administration officials
and that of their respective legislatures to analyze, comprehend, and anticipate North
American integration, the CSIS North America Project proposes to carry out a series of
seven closed-door roundtable sessions.
To capture the very best thinking on the six issues that will be covered, each of the
roundtable sessions will convene a combination of practitioners (FROM EACH RESPECTIVE
ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATURE); stakeholders (from the private sector and conceivably even
labor unions); and highly specialized academics and analysts from Canada, the United States,
and Mexico…………………………..
The final deliverable will be a report on options and policy recommendations on the future
of North American integration that will be presented in September 2007 TO THE EXECUTIVE
AND LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES OF THE THREE GOVERNMENTS of North America……………………….
ROUNDTABLE I: METHODOLOGY OF GLOBAL AND NORTH AMERICAN PROJECTIONS
The CSIS North America Project will convene pertinent GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FROM CANADA,
the United States, and Mexico, along with selected nongovernment experts knowledgeable
of current global and North American trends and experienced in projecting scenarios…………….
ROUNDTABLE III: THE FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY
…………………………..In order for North America to secure the energy resources and strategic networks needed to
remain competitive in the global economy, policymakers must devise forward-looking,
collaborative policies that integrate governments, the private sector, and stakeholders. To
foster the development of such policies, CSIS will examine a wide array of energy issues,
including, but not limited to, access to energy resources, development of energy-efficient and
sustainable technologies, energy diversification, physical and cybernetic security of critical
energy infrastructure, trade and investment laws and regulations, risk management, and
environmental impacts. TRILATERAL COORDINATION OF ENERGY POLICY IS CRUCIAL to assuring North
America’s future competitiveness and regional security………………………….
ROUNDTABLE IV: THE FUTURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ENVIRONMENT
………………………Juxtaposed to the relative scarcity of water in the United States and Mexico, Canada
possesses about 20 percent of the earth’s fresh water. Cognizant that water will
become a strategic resource, Canada’s federal and provincial governments have
undertaken measures to protect the nation’s water supply. This task is particularly
challenging, given that Canada and the United State share many basins along their
border, such as the Great Lakes as well as multiple rivers. Because water availability,
quality, and allocation are likely to undergo profound changes between 2006 and
2025, policymakers will benefit from a more proactive approach to exploring
different creative solutions BEYOND THE CURRENT TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENT
AGREEMENTS that the United States has reached with both Mexico and Canada. One
such option could be regional agreements between Canada, the United States, and
Mexico on issues such as water consumption, water transfers, artificial diversions of
fresh water, water conservation technologies for agricultural irrigation, and urban
consumption………………….
ROUNDTABLE V: THE FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN SECURITY
The ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada,
the United States, and Mexico in 1994 marked the beginning of an extensive trade and
investment relationship between the three countries. Nonetheless, this HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL
TRILATERAL AGREEMENT THAT WOULD PROCEED TO INTENSELY INTEGRATE THE THREE ECONOMIES of the
nations that make up North America over the next 11 years was not accompanied by a
strategy to ensure the security of the region………………….
ROUNDTABLE VI: THE FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS
Trade and Market Integration: As an overall component of competitiveness,
North America needs to continue to STRIVE TOWARD INCREASED TRADE AND MARKET
INTEGRATION. Increased trade liberalization and market integration will help promote
economic competitiveness by decreasing the costs of transactions and increasing the
opportunities for trade……………….
……………..The North American Future 2025 project will also examine the North American regulatory regime and will look to see how it can be further harmonized in order to drive down transaction costs, increase efficiency, and promote trade between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. By PROMOTING UNIFIED NORTH AMERICAN REGULATORY STANDARDS IN KEY SECTORS—such as customs, transportation, health (medicines and medical devices), AND FOOD AND AGRICULTURE (food safety and biotechnology, for example)—…………………….
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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp